West Ham United face Aston Villa on Saturday in a vital Barclays Premier League match with manager Gianfranco Zola confident his team can leave Villa Park with a positive result.
The two sides find themselves inside the top seven in the Premier League table after impressive seasons so far, but they will both be chasing a weekend win to help cement their respective continental ambitions for next season.
Zola is expected to be boosted by the return of Radoslav Kovac, while Scott Parker is a doubt again as he continues his recovery from a groin injury. "We should have a couple of players back. We should have Kovac back and we are still waiting on Scott Parker. We don't know on him yet, but we will see tomorrow," Zola said.
West Ham produced an impressive performance when the two sides met at the Boleyn Ground in December last year, but lost out to a single, fortuitous goal when James Milner's cross clipped Lucas Neill and looped over Robert Green with just 12 minutes remaining. Zola believes his side can demonstrate to Martin O'Neill's men that they are better than that result showed.
"The players know that we want to bounce back straight away and we are playing against a difficult team. But they are a team that when we played at home we thought we were unlucky losing to, so we have a lot to prove and a good chance."
Villa have enjoyed a successful season thus far, but have suffered a slight dip in form in recent weeks and find themselves without a win in ten matches in all competitions. Zola, however, is wary of the threat he knows his side will face in the Midlands.
"I remember so many games where Villa were struggling and then they nick a goal at the end. It is a team that deserves the respect and they have got all of our respect.
"It is always a team that has to be handled very carefully and have a lot of potential. Maybe they are not as dangerous as they were at the beginning of the season, but they are still a team that you have to treat with respect. But we go there trying to win the game with no fear."
West Ham find themselves one point ahead of eighth-placed Fulham and the manager knows that a win at Villa Park would be a massive step in the direction of a place in the UEFA Europa League next season.
"We are still happy with the situation and we know it is going to be hard until the end. But we don't give anything away as you saw against Tottenham, so we are going to have our best try and will see in the end if we can make it."
West Ham suffered derby day blues last weekend with defeat at White Hart Lane, but with the likes of Valon Behrami, Jack Collison and Carlton Cole injured - although the latter two could still have an impact before the season - Zola has plenty of faith in the players he still has at his disposal.
"I remain of the opinion that it was a close game. It could have gone on our side or their side. We had a great chance just before they scored through [David] Di Michele and he missed and then [Roman] Pavlyuchenko scored.
"I am happy with the way we played under the circumstances we stood up against Tottenham and I think we played as well as them."